BOULDER — With the news Thursday that Colorado freshman receiver Jeffrey Thomas has returned home to Dallas for “personal reasons” and will grayshirt (delay his enrollment until January), it got me wondering if wide receiver has become a jinxed position for Colorado.

It sure seems so.

CU coach Jon Embree and his staff signed three wideouts in February, and only one, Gerald Thomas, is in school. Jeffrey Thomas (no relation) and Peyton Williams will grayshirt. Williams is coming off reconstructive knee surgery for an ACL tear suffered last December during the high school playoffs and wouldn’t be fully recovered for the start of this season.

For whatever reason — and there seems to be myriad of them — bad luck has followed Colorado wide receiver recruits.

Here is a list of scholarship signees at the wide receiver position who left the program prematurely:

That exceptional attrition has made it difficult for the Buffs to build depth and acquire talent at wide receiver.

“Jeffrey Thomas has some stuff going on back home,” Embree said Thursday following the morning practice. “I just felt it was better for him to go back home and get it all figured out, and then come back in January. That’s the best thing for everybody involved.”

Practices are closed to the media, but reports suggest that Jeffrey Thomas would have been in the mix for playing time after sitting out the two-game suspension levied against him by Embree for Thomas’ involvement in the off-campus pellet gun incident.

Gerald Thomas, the last remaining true-freshman wideout on the roster, also has been impressive. A redshirt freshman, Nelson Spruce, is a likely starter this season — at least until the return of junior Paul Richardson (knee surgery).

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.